what do you guys think??

[razman]

after 9 years of trying to attract a colony, i still have only one nesting pair this year (third year in a row)......i have an ASY male and what appears to be SY female..they have completed a nest in my Trio castle, and have been spending the night in there for weeks.,, OK, so i have been checking the nest everyday to see if egg laying has started, yesterday i pulled the castle down, checked the nest, still no eggs, so i decided to check the rest of the castle for sparrow nests...i found a single martin egg in an EMPTY compartment!! no nesting material at all..i think the female is young and confused. my question is this: do i move the egg to the nest, or just let them work it out??? i am curious to see what happens today...if she lays a second egg in the empty compartment then what???? opinions would be appreciated since i have only one pair, and it is important to me to try to avoid making a mistake with them. thanks, Rick

[pillow]

I know how you feel. My colony started the same year yours did, and I only had 2 pair last year. A SY Female did this last year at my house. Luckily she laid the rest of the eggs in her actual nest. I watched it each day, then placed the lone egg in the real nest. All the eggs hatched and fledged. I don't know what to recommend if she lays egg #2 with the first one. I guess I would wait until she finishes the clutch to make a decision. I am sure others will have more experienced advice to offer.

Greg

[Aaron H]

Hello,...Razman
Sounds like you and me are kind of in the same boat,
as we both have only had one pair for the past three years.
I have hoped to have more pairs by now,
as i am sure you was hoping to have a lot more birds to.

I am not sure what to tell you to do about your female trouble
but most likely she will figure out how to get a nest of eggs started.

I on the other hand have a different problem with my female, when
the male trys to bring in an extra female to help start a second pair
the first female starts a fight with the second female and sends her
into the next county
I sure wish you the best with your martins and hope you fill up
the castle this year.

[flyin-lowe]

Raz
Mortality rates are high for the migration. Are there any colonies near by you? If so you would think you would be getting some of their SY's. If yours is the only colony close by it could take a while to grow. Studies suggest around 10% return to their original colony. So if only about 60% survive migration and then you take 10% of that there are not a lot of PM's returning to your site each year.
I am not sure it will matter one way or the other but I would probably start doing nest checks every 4-6 days instead of every day. Especially if you think one of your PM's is an SY. You probably won't run her off but an SY will not have the site fidelity that ASY's will have, especially if she is not sitting on eggs yet.

[MDavis]

I would go with Gregs advice that should work make sure you have some nest material with the single egg so it don't break while you wait to see what happens.

[Doug Martin - PA]

Rick,

You make me feel extremely fortunate to have a growing colony. I would get out that dawnsong and put up a few more posts with gourds on them.

As for the egg I would not worry too much about it. I doubt she is that confused... but it could be her first egg ever and kind of a test run that she did not intend to place in their actual nest. I moved some eggs with my first pairs as they did some similiar things. None of them hatched anyway. She could be smarter than you think.

You could leave it and add it to her brood depending on how many more she lays.

Doug

[razman]

thanks to everyone for your responses....early this evening, i lowered the house and there is a brand new egg IN THE NEST this time...guess she figured it out this morning! the other egg is still in the empty compartment, i'm gonna leave it alone for now, and wait to see how many eggs end up in the nest before deciding whether to move it or not...thanks again! Rick